Walter Reed: Part One

Well, this photo is not from today, but Mr. Man looked a lot like this by the end of the day. He was wiped out. After a morning of hanging out, we drove up to Walter Reed for Liam's appointments. His first appointment was for audiology. We were following up on a mild hearing loss that he registered back in December of last year. Liam was soooo good and patient and everything tested within normal range. Yay!!

Well, then it was off to the allergy clinic. Not as much fun. We first talked about his current rash and was told that it was eczema...most likely due to his food allergies. He has a rash right around his mouth and has always had a rash around his bum (since day 1) and so it's Triple Paste for him on a daily basis for now. That stuff seriously rocks, BTW. Due to his sensory problem, the doctor decided that Liam wouldn't tolerate a skin test well, so it was off to draw blood. Well, that's not fun to begin with, but add in the fact that Liam just does not bleed, and you have a real downer of an experience. It took the nurse, Taylor, and I all to hold his poor little arm while she moved the needle around. After some serious torture, she got a whopping 2cc's of blood....we are crossing fingers that this will be enough for his allergy test. It is a send-off lab, so we won't have results for around 2 weeks. In the end, though, we are just happy to finally have some testing done so we can figure out what allergies have been bothering my little man for 2 years now and how severe they are. I have to say, I was happy that if we had to do all this, that we were at Walter Reed, so I knew we were in good hands. In addition, a lot of the amputees that were there were hopefully able to be cheered even just a tiny bit by Mr. Social's hellos and goodbyes as everyone got on and exited the elevator.

Tomorrow, I have a half day with my 25 other kiddos and then it's off to VA Beach again for some turkey fun!

Visiting Family

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, a lot of our time will be spent with family. On Friday, Liam's school had their Thanksgiving Feast. Taylor was able to go. Liam was super excited to see him and mostly wanted to just sit in his lap rather than actually eating. Taylor finally got him to seat in his own chair and they were able to enjoy lunch together:





Friday night, the three of us met up with Maureen and Pat for a great dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was so much fun to see both of them and Liam just loved Maureen. You could quickly tell she was very experienced with 2 year old boys.

Afterwards, we traveled down to Virginia Beach. Saturday night, a couple of Taylor's relatives from Illinois came over for dinner and on Sunday, we went to his great-aunt's house for his great-uncle's 80th birthday. Liam, as always, had a blast seeing everyone and was a great traveler. Thank goodness, because Tuesday is one of his appointments at Walter Reed, and then Wednesday, it's back in the car for the trip back down to Virginia Beach to enjoy the holiday. Taylor and I are just too glad that we got Liam used to traveling a lot early on so that he gives us very little trouble now. His comfy seat doesn't hurt either! :)

Liam and Taylor's Birthday Bash

Saturday was Liam and Taylor's birthday party and what a fun day it was. Grandmichaele, Papa, Mike, and Alex came down Thursday night. After a hard day of shopping on Friday, everyone was set for the big day. It was a sign of a great party to come when we got up in the morning and lo and behold, this is what we found right outside our window:



Very appropriate since the theme for the party was construction! Liam absolutely loved it and was glued to the window for a good portion of the day, although at times, dressed rather oddly:



At the party were both sides of the family, including Liam's great-aunt Pat, and great-aunt and uncle, Caty and Mark. It was so nice for all of them to come down. We had so much fun visiting with everyone, especially little Benjamin, who is becoming not so little anymore at 6 months old!:



Liam had a blast visiting with everyone and was seriously hamming it up for the crowd. At cake time, we all surprised Taylor by throwing up 30th birthday decorations while he was giving Caty and Mark a tour upstairs. Liam didn't seem to mind sharing the spotlight, or the cake:



After opening lots of presents and eating tons of food, Liam promised me that he wasn't tired. For some reason, I didn't believe him:



So, it was time for kisses from Papa and then off to bed.



A fun time was had by all and love that so many were able to make it. It made for a truly special day for both of my boys. More pictures can be found both at Liam's picture site, as well as Ben's, which you can get to by clicking on any picture on his website.

Happy birthday, Basye boys!

New Pillow

The title says it all. This morning, Liam was playing downstairs in the playroom and somehow the small elephant that was attached to his yellow pillow (which he carries EVERYWHERE) came detached from the pillow itself. Drama, drama, drama. Liam was traumatized. Taylor and I tried to staple it back on, but that didn't last.

Well, Liam and I decided to go out in hunt for a "new pillow." Nothing suited him at Target, since he didn't want a stuffed animal, but a weird pillowy thing that you can't find at IKEA anymore. So, off to Buy Buy Baby we went and we came up with a pillowy like animal...and it's definitely weird. I honestly didn't think he'd take to it too easily, but Taylor and I both played it up really big, telling him that new pillow as the best ever and so cool.

Here is the end result:



That's right, folks. Liam is sleeping with "new pillow" right now. We had our moments today where Mr. Man was just dying for the old pillow (and we still have it safe at hand, with the elephant still detached) but he hasn't really needed it much today. Yay! Why are we so excited? Old pillow was one that Mimi and Tooey got from IKEA years ago and you can't find it anywhere. Not even on Ebay. New pillow? There are a million of these out there, and you'd better believe I'll be back at Buy Buy Baby later this week to purchase backups!

2 Year Appointment

Since this news is a bit seperate from Halloween, I figured I'd give it its own post. Mr. Man had his 2 year appointment on Thursday. The good news (for him) was that he didn't get any shots, since he still needs to wait a few months. The not so good news is that he will need 3 more doctor appointments. He will be seeing an audiologist to check on a mild hearing loss he registered last December to make sure that improved. He will finally be seeing an allergist. And now he needs to see a cardiologist since we learned he has a heart murmur.

Liam only weighed in at 28 lbs (50th percentile) and it looks like he'll rear-face in his carseat another full year at least. We couldn't get height accurately since he was so wiggly. He HATES getting weighed and measured so they still need to use the baby scale to do both.

Therapy is going well and we really like who he has here. I really think she'll be able to help him. Other than that, Taylor and I are excited since we finally bought a sofa for our so far empty living room (we have 2 living areas in this house). Thought we'd post a picture of that:

Secret Trick or Treats

Well, Liam's 3rd halloween was a great success. Since we are never this close to family and are trying to have Liam around his family as much as possible, we decided to take the opportunity to drive down to VA Beach to surprise Mimi and Tooie (Taylor's dad). I took half a day of leave on Tuesday and we drove down to Mimi's office. She was so surprised her jaw literally dropped on the floor, I think. Afterwards, we stopped by to surprise Mommma (Taylor's grandmother). To say the least, she certainly did not expect us and Liam and Molly both had a grand old time running around her backyard and watching all the Naval planes flying overhead.



Look...airplane!!



Afterwards, it was off to Taylor's parents house for a great dinner of Beach Bully before trick or treating. Liam had soooo much fun walking around the neighborhood with Mimi and us and would talk and talk and talk until he got to an actual house. He would ring the doorbell fine, but when someone answered, he wouldn't say a word. He would however, stare at the candy and all the decorations.



After stopping at maybe half a dozen houses, the gang finally wound up at Tooey's house (Richard wasn't able to walk with us since he had just hurt his leg), and Liam was much more animated and happy to see who answered the door.



I know you!!!



All in all, it was great fun and we were so happy that we went down for the night. It was well worth the trip.

You can see Liam grasping onto a candy bar. He held it all night, even though poor little man couldn't have anything due to his dairy allergy.



BOO!!